What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

Painter with a question here. I need to finish some cedar shakes before they are installed. I'm told 20 squares will be ordered. What is a square of cedar shakes? Is that a certain number of shakes? or enough to cover a ceratin square footage? or something else?

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

BoneSaw, thanks for all the info. I'm just going to have to go with the info i have from you guys. This is a little favor for my only good builder. He tried to get someone who specializes in this work to complete the task. Seems as though they don't have their act together. My plan is to construct a few racks to put the wet shingles on while they dry. If i think of it i'll take some pictures, maybe it'll help someone else down the road.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

I haven't done shakes in 30 yrs. Aren't they all pre-treated for fire & bugs today? The bundles that I see at the lumberyard seem to be garanteed against fire, rot, bugs and everything short of thermo-nuclear attack.

Today, I use them for shims. Their popularity as a roofing material has waned over the last few years.

I still remember how it's done though! Thatch too!

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

Ok first off a square of cedar is highly dependant on the size of the shake and the exposure of the shake. Here a 10" exposure on roofing is standard but 7" and 5" on walls is standard. Obviously different shakes are required for each.

How many shakes are in a square? Tough question. I mean most shakes are random widths and to be honest I think they bundle the shakes by weight and are really just taking an educated guess at the coverage. What I mean is one bundle may be 110 square feet and the next 90 square feet but it all averages out in the end.

If you want me to take a guess I will say there are more than 50 shakes in a bundle and less than 100.

I posted in your other thread, but have you considered hiring a prefinish factor to stain these for you? If you are going to do the staining yourself I suggest dipping the shake and allowing them to air dry. Don't paint them with any brush or roller. You are going to need alot more stain for this, but it will totally increase production time and the quality of the paint job.

Seriously don't bother with doing this yourself hire a prefinisher to do this for you.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

I've made some cool racks by ripping 2 slots in a 2x4 each at opposing 10 degree angles. fill em up with shakes. then spray away. you can fill up a shop quick doing this. but it works. for that many check out michiganpre-stain.com for what you can get them pre- finished any more it's well worth the headache.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

Apparently the original plan was to have a pre finish contractor finish the shakes. Something went wrong and the builder is now ready for the shakes to be installed. I told him I'd get him a price to do them on site so they could start hanging them the next day. Looks like my price is roughly twice the pre finish contractors price, and now waiting an extra 2 weeks doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

True, but not when it comes to what exposure you’re talking about. The guy has to know this in order to figure out how many he will be priming. If it's 5" to the weather as opposed to 10", he will be priming twice as much. That's the answer he's looking for.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Carola

True, but not when it comes to what exposure you’re talking about. The guy has to know this in order to figure out how many he will be priming. If it's 5" to the weather as opposed to 10", he will be priming twice as much. That's the answer he's looking for.

My brain itched trying to make sense of this post Joe, when is a square installed not a square installed??? Installed is the key word here. 20 sq is 20 sq, 5" to the weather or 100'... So paint covererage area is not really in question. I assumed phish's questions as to the # of shakes/bundle was geared up more towards figgering some sort of "assembely line" staging system rather than exposure and paint coverage.

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What Is A Square Of Cedar Shakes

That's the thing Bone we are assuming and all assuming something different. I assumed he wanted to paint all the shakes and all sides. Maybe he just wants to paint the exposed 5" but if that were the case wouldn't he just paint them once installed?

Yeah there is alot of gray area, but bottom line is it'd be alot faster, easier, cheaper, and BETTER if bought pre-finished. It's not often something is cheaper and easier and better at the same time, but this is one case where it is.

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